6 thinkers, books, and ideas connected to this field.
French political thinker and historian — author of Democracy in America (1835–40) and The Old Regime and the Revolution — who produced the most penetrating external analysis of American democracy and predicted the soft despotism of modern mass democracy.
Alexis de Tocqueville's two-volume analysis of American democracy (1835, 1840) — the most important outside analysis of American political culture — which identified both the strengths (civic associations, federalism, local government) and dangers (tyranny of the majority, soft despotism) of democratic equality.
Hong Kong media magnate and democracy activist — founder of Apple Daily (closed by Beijing in 2021) and Next Digital — currently imprisoned under Hong Kong's National Security Law — one of the most consequential figures in the fight for Hong Kong's autonomy.
American political scientist at Stanford and Hoover Institution — former US Ambassador to Russia (2012–2014) — author of From Cold War to Hot Peace — the leading American analyst of Putin's Russia from a democratic-promotion perspective.
American political scientist — Harvard — author of Bowling Alone and Making Democracy Work — who created the social capital concept and documented its decline in America — the most influential political scientist of the last 30 years.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau's 1762 political treatise articulating the general will — the idea that legitimate political authority comes from the common interest of the community, not from monarchs or contracts between rulers and ruled — whose opening line 'Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains' is the most famous in political philosophy.